Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Military
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Military
Proposal for MSA 685 Project
Ronnie Heare
Dr. Robert E. Weltzer Jr.
Table of Contents
Abstract 3
Problem Statement 4
Purpose of Study 4
Literature Review 5
Methodology 8
References 9
Literature Review
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is becoming an ever increasing problem in today’s military. This disorder is nothing new and has affected veterans from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and Desert Shield/Desert Storm. There are particularly good descriptions of posttraumatic stress symptoms in the medical literature on combat veterans of World War II and on Holocaust survivors. (Veterans Affairs Fact Sheet, 2006). But with the many deployments in the past several years to Iraq and Afghanistan, with many soldiers going over for the third or fourth deployments, the pressures mounting on today’s military has become too much for some to handle.
The main difference between past wand present wars is the ever increasing number of women who are seeing combat on the front lines. Women are being tasked to fill more and more lethal combat roles as the war on terror continues and women appear to be more susceptible to PTSD than their male counterparts. Studies indicate that many of these women suffer from more pronounced and debilitating forms of PTSD than men, a worrisome finding in a nation that remembers how many traumatized troops got back from Vietnam and turned to drugs and violence, alcohol and suicide. (Scharnberg, 2005).
The government is extremely concerned about this and has begun doing studies on how to combat the lingering effects of this disorder. Half of the women will be treated to long term therapy in which they will relive the traumatic events that led up to PTSD in
Proposal for MSA 685 Project
Ronnie Heare
Dr. Robert E. Weltzer Jr.
Table of Contents
Abstract 3
Problem Statement 4
Purpose of Study 4
Literature Review 5
Methodology 8
References 9
Literature Review
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is becoming an ever increasing problem in today’s military. This disorder is nothing new and has affected veterans from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and Desert Shield/Desert Storm. There are particularly good descriptions of posttraumatic stress symptoms in the medical literature on combat veterans of World War II and on Holocaust survivors. (Veterans Affairs Fact Sheet, 2006). But with the many deployments in the past several years to Iraq and Afghanistan, with many soldiers going over for the third or fourth deployments, the pressures mounting on today’s military has become too much for some to handle.
The main difference between past wand present wars is the ever increasing number of women who are seeing combat on the front lines. Women are being tasked to fill more and more lethal combat roles as the war on terror continues and women appear to be more susceptible to PTSD than their male counterparts. Studies indicate that many of these women suffer from more pronounced and debilitating forms of PTSD than men, a worrisome finding in a nation that remembers how many traumatized troops got back from Vietnam and turned to drugs and violence, alcohol and suicide. (Scharnberg, 2005).
The government is extremely concerned about this and has begun doing studies on how to combat the lingering effects of this disorder. Half of the women will be treated to long term therapy in which they will relive the traumatic events that led up to PTSD in
References: Department of Veterans Affairs Homepage. What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? [online]. Available: http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/topics/war.html (2006, February 22). Mclemore, David. (2005, Dec 8). For troops, stress a lingering hazard. The Dallas Morning News. Nadelson, Theodore. Damage: War 's Awful Aftermath. In Trained to Kill: Soldiers at War, 89-103. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. 191pp. (U21.5 .N33 2005) Rogers, Rick. (2006, March 19). Some troops headed back to Iraq are mentally ill. The San Diego Union Tribune. Scharnberg, Kirsten. (2005, March 28). Women GIs and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Chicago Tribune. U.S. Government Accountability Office. VA Health: VA Should Expedite the Implementation of Recommendations Needed to Improve Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Services. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Accountability Office, February 2005. 58pp. Available from http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05287.pdf. Internet.